Beware this fascination with fast food

This week the British Heart Foundation launches "On Your Feet Britain", a campaign to encourage office workers to simply stand up more regularly, walk around, and embrace ideas such as standing meetings, standing desks, or taking a lunchtime stroll.

A BHF survey found nearly half of British women and one-third of men now spend less than 30 minutes a day on their feet at work, within a labor force that continues to move away from its manufacturing past toward a desk-bound, screen-gazing future.

The health effects of that ongoing shift are being worsened by national eating habits which continue to be dominated by an obsession for prepackaged, preservative-heavy, processed foods, often high in salt, protein and calories.

The BHF's research concludes the combination of that diet and increasingly sedentary behavior has raised Britons' risk of developing type-2 diabetes and dying prematurely from cardiovascular disease, and is increasingly being linked directly with cases of obesity and weight gain.

China's diet has for centuries been healthier than in the West, with its staples of rice and vegetables, noodles and steamed breads. But according to market researcher Euromonitor International, the Chinese market for fast food is set to overtake US demand this year, and has disturbing implications for the nation's health services.

Rising cases of numerous chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, high cholesterol and diabetes, are already being tied to the growth in cheap, convenience food.

The World Health Organization thinks more than 30 percent of Chinese adults are overweight and it is estimated that more than 100 million have diabetes, more than any other country.

Figures quoted in this newspaper earlier this month from the US Chamber of Commerce suggest there are 342 million Chinese who are classified as overweight or obese, a 200 percent increase in 30 years.

Worryingly, it's the younger generation being most tempted, as more turn to takeaways from a cardboard box or cup with added salt or sugar, or huge Western food-dominated retail outlets selling high-calorie international brands.

It's no coincidence the current British election campaign has funding of the National Health Service at its heart. The UK is growing again economically, but it's also still gorging on junk food and its medical system is creaking under the pressure.

Euromonitor suggests the Chinese fast-food market as a whole grew from 263.9 billion yuan ($42.4 billion) in 2008 to 617.3 billion yuan in 2012, and is expected to increase to more than 1 trillion yuan by 2017, or 7 percent annually. There are already about 4,500 KFC branches and 2,000 McDonald's ones, for instance.

The government recently encouraged more people to eat potatoes to ease pressure on scarce agricultural resources. It's a creditable sentiment but questionable, given that its popularity is possibly partly driven by the appeal of the humble French fry, which many critics say is the likely cause in the West of many a million clogged arteries.

China must try and do more to warn and inform about fast food, and the consequences of eating too much of it.

The world cannot afford another obese nation, and certainly not one of 1.35 billion people.

Contact the writer at nicholas@chinadaily.com.cn